Catching my balance.

12 July 2011

Double alumni special

A number of years ago I applied to law school. I was trying to finish up my dissertation, and it could have been going better. I was having a crisis of faith in my area of scholarship and its applicability. I thought I saw a way to use the brains what I got for something useful. So I applied to law school.

Admittedly, I did not do superduper on my LSAT. I have never done spectacularly on standardized tests, and the LSAT was no different (although I've recently been told that my GRE scores, which I'd always thought of as just okay, were really pretty high. So go figure). Anyhoodle, I got into a couple of places outright. I decided to defer one, turned down the others. I was waitlisted at a couple, including my number one choice, but wasn't given a spot in the end.

At the time I was living in DC. I applied to one law school in DC, and was waitlisted. They declined to give me a spot. Ultimately, I realized that I probably wasn't meant for law school. I never did go. But somewhere in the interim American University upgraded me from waitlisted law school applicant who didn't get a spot to alumnae.

Apparently I'm invited to the alumni BBQ! Whoooo! Maybe I can see my friends who went to AU there! We can talk about old times! I wonder how far this confusion goes? Would they give me a recommendation?

Meanwhile, I've lost track of how many doppelgangers I have out there. I used to think there was only the one-- the one that used to live in L.A., but now lives in New York. But then I realized that there were two-- the L.A./NYC one, and the English/Scottish one. I seem to have lost the English/Scottish one. I assume because after getting the last notice that she was meant to have a phone interview at a Scottish uni I got a follow up email telling me that "my" in person interview was scheduled for the following week. I'm assuming she managed to do her phone interview on the fly, since she apparently never got the notice, so rock on, English/Scottish doppelganger, for impressing on the phone all impromptu and whatnot. I decided it would be mean not to attempt to rectify the situation. I emailed the uni and let them know it was the wrong email addy. I've only received one errant email obviously meant for her in the year since, which I take to mean that she sorted her address book out. Here's hoping she got the job.

The L.A./NYC one seemed to have figured out that something was amiss (after a year of her building emailing me to tell me that the keys are at the front desk, or that I have a package waiting for me downstairs). This is the one who once emailed me a picture of her own bloody dog. For a while there was radio silence from the city.I mean, outside of the non.frigging.stop emails from Express, William Sonoma, Pottery Barn, amd yoga retreats that come into my box, for which I believe I can thank her.

The Canadian one has become a force to be reckoned with. I think she lives in or around Toronto. Initially, there was the one wayward notification from a grantmaking organization that, although she hadn't received the last grant, she was eligible to apply again. That was a couple of years ago. Even at the time I thought, hummm.., interesting. I mean, what percentage of the general population spends their time chasing grants? What are the chances that two people, with the same name, both of whom happen to believe they have the same email address (only one of whom would be correct, thank you very much), would both spend their time doing this?

Well, it is, apparently, the case. Only she apparently applies for grants having to do with education. In much the same way I do. Sometimes it's enough to make me wonder, just for a second, if I am not in some three faces of Eve situation.

Meanwhile, another one, or maybe the New York one? I don't know, someone has appeared. I am notified about many of her financial transactions. She is quite lucky that I am a scrupulous person. There are more than 300 messages in my box meant for one of them. And just a handful for the actual me.

Sometimes I wonder if I could run away and be one of them, and ponder what joys that might bring.